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12 YEARS A SLAVE Lead Nominations for 2014 Film Independent Spirit Awards

12 YEARS A SLAVE

12 YEARS A SLAVE lead the nominations for the 2014 Film Independent Spirit Awards with 7 nods including Best Feature; other nominees for Best Feature include ALL IS LOST, FRANCES HA, INSIDE LLEWYN DAVIS and NEBRASKA. MUD was selected to receive the annual Robert Altman Award, which is bestowed upon one film’s director, casting director and ensemble cast. Winners will be announced at the Spirit Awards on Saturday, March 1, 2014.

2014 FILM INDEPENDENT SPIRIT AWARD NOMINATIONS

Best Feature
12 Years a Slave, All Is Lost, Frances Ha, Inside Llewyn Davis, Nebraska

Best Director
Shane Carruth, Upstream Color; J.C. Chandor; All Is Lost; Steve McQueen, 12 Years a Slave; Jeff Nichols, Mud; Alexander Payne, Nebraska

Best Screenplay
Woody Allen, Blue Jasmine; Julie Delpy, Ethan Hawke & Richard Linklater Before Midnight;Nicole Holofcener Enough Said; Scott Neustadter & Michael H. Weber, The Spectacular Now;John Ridley, 12 Years a Slave

Best First Feature
Blue Caprice, Director/Producer: Alexandre Moors; Producers: Kim Jackson, Brian O’Carroll, Isen Robbins, Will Rowbotham, Ron Simons, Aimee Schoof, Stephen Tedeschi; Concussion,Director: Stacie Passon, Producer: Rose Troche; Fruitvale Station, Director: Ryan Coogler; Producers: Nina Yang Bongiovi, Forest Whitaker; Una Noche, Director/Producer: Lucy Mulloy, Producers: Sandy Pérez Aguila, Maite Artieda, Daniel Mulloy, Yunior Santiago; Wadjda,Director: Haifaa Al Mansour, Producers: Gerhard Meixner, Roman Paul

Best First Screenplay
Lake Bell, In A World; Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Don Jon; Bob Nelson, Nebraska; Jill Soloway,Afternoon Delight; Michael Starrbury, The Inevitable Defeat of Mister and Pete

John Cassavetes Award (best feature made for under $500,000)
Computer Chess, Writer/Director: Andrew Bujalski, Producers: Houston King & Alex Lipschultz;Crystal Fairy, Writer/Director: Sebastiàn Silva, Producers: Juan de Dios Larraín & Pablo Larraín; Museum Hours, Writer/Director: Jem Cohen, Producers: Paolo Calamita & Gabriele Kranzelbinder; Pit Stop, Writer/Director: Yen Tan, Writer: David Lowery, Producers: Jonathan Duffy, James M. Johnston, Eric Steele, Kelly Williams; This is Martin Bonner, Writer/Director: Chad Hartigan, Producer: Cherie Saulter

Best Female Lead
Cate Blanchett, Blue Jasmine; Julie Delpy, Before Midnight; Gaby Hoffmann, Crystal Fairy;Brie Larson, Short Term 12; Shailene Woodley, The Spectacular Now

Best Male Lead
Bruce Dern, Nebraska; Chiwetel Ejiofor, 12 Years a Slave; Oscar Isaac, Inside Llewyn Davis;Michael B. Jordan, Fruitvale Station; Matthew McConaughey, Dallas Buyers Club; Robert Redford, All Is Lost

Best Supporting Female
Melonie Diaz, Fruitvale Station; Sally Hawkins, Blue Jasmine; Lupita Nyong’o, 12 Years a Slave; Yolonda Ross, Go For Sisters; June Squibb, Nebraska

Best Supporting Male
Michael Fassbender, 12 Years a Slave; Will Forte, Nebraska; James Gandolfini, Enough Said;Jared Leto, Dallas Buyers Club; Keith Stanfield, Short Term 12

Best Cinematography
Sean Bobbitt, 12 Years a Slave; Benoit Debie, Spring Breakers; Bruno Delbonnel, Inside Llewyn Davis; Frank G. DeMarco, All Is Lost; Matthias Grunsky, Computer Chess

Best Editing
Shane Carruth & David Lowery, Upstream Color; Jem Cohen & Marc Vives, Museum Hours;Jennifer Lame, Frances Ha; Cindy Lee, Una Noche; Nat Sanders, Short Term 12

Best Documentary
20 Feet From Stardom, Director/Producer: Morgan Neville, Producers: Gil Friesen & Caitrin Rogers; After Tiller, Directors/Producers: Martha Shane & Lana Wilson; Gideon’s Army,Director/Producer: Dawn Porter, Producer: Julie Goldman; The Act of Killing,Director/Producer: Joshua Oppenheimer, Producers: Joram Ten Brink, Christine Cynn, Anne Köhncke, Signe Byrge Sørensen, Michael Uwemedimo, The Square, Director: Jehane Noujaim, Producer: Karim Amer

Best International Film
A Touch of Sin, (China), Director: Jia Zhang-Ke; Blue is the Warmest Color, (France), Director: Abdellatif Kechiche; Gloria, (Chile), Director: Sebastián Lelio; The Great Beauty,(Italy), Director: Paolo Sorrentino; The Hunt, (Denmark), Director: Thomas Vinterberg

17th Annual Piaget Producers Award
Toby Halbrooks & James M. Johnston, Jacob Jaffke, Andrea Roa, Frederick Thornton

20th Annual Someone To Watch Award
My Sister’s Quinceañera, Director: Aaron Douglas Johnston; Newlyweeds, Director: Shaka King; The Foxy Merkins, Director: Madeline Olnek

19th Annual Stella Artois Truer Than Fiction Award
Kalyanee Mam, A River Changes Course; Jason Osder, Let the Fire Burn; Stephanie Spray & Pacho Velez, Manakamana

Robert Altman Award
Mud, Director: Jeff Nichols, Casting Director: Francine Maisler, Ensemble Cast: Joe Don Baker, Jacob Lofland, Matthew McConaughey, Ray McKinnon, Sarah Paulson, Michael Shannon, Sam Shepard, Tye Sheridan, Paul Sparks, Bonnie Sturdivant, Reese Witherspoon
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Oprah Winfrey Hosts Screening of Hemingway Documentary RUNNING FROM CRAZY | WATCH Trailer

Oprah Winfrey recently held a private LA screening of a documentary she’s executive producing called RUNNING FROM CRAZY, directed by two-time Academy Award winner Barbara Kopple (Harlan County USA, American Dream). The film, which goes behind the long history of mental illness and suicide in the famed Hemingway family, is currently in theaters in select cities and will air on OWN: Oprah Winfrey Network in 2014.

Hailed as one of the most distinguished families in American literature, the Hemingways have always exposed their brilliance while often living in the shadows of deep emotional struggle. Two-time Academy Award winning filmmaker Barbara Kopple’s newest documentary focuses on Mariel Hemingway, a granddaughter of the legendary writer Ernest, as she explores her family’s disturbing history of mental illness and suicide. As a child, Mariel grew up on the Hemingway family farm in Idaho, the same place her famous grandfather took his own life months before she was born. The youngest of the three sisters, Mariel followed her older sister Margaux into acting and modeling, while her oldest sister Muffet struggled with mental illness and drifted in and out of mental hospitals. Kopple’s bold film intertwines haunting archival footage of the three Hemingway sisters with scenes from Mariel’s life today as she seeks to live a rigorously healthy lifestyle to combat what appears to be a difficult family birthright. Mariel’s courageous journey of introspection and reflection allows her to view her family that has shaped her life through new eyes and, for the first time, strive for peace and acceptance.

Image: (L-R) Sheri Salata, president of OWN: Oprah Winfrey Network and Harpo Studios; Oprah Winfrey, chairman and CEO of OWN: Oprah Winfrey Network and Harpo Studios; Barbara Kopple, filmmaker and Mariel Hemingway at the LA premiere screening of “Running From Crazy.”

Courtesy: OWN: Oprah Winfrey Network

http://youtu.be/kfGYqdTAxEk
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African Diaspora International Film Festival Unveils 2013 Caribbean Experience Showcase Lineup

Toussaint Louverture

Cuba, Granada, Haiti, Jamaica, Curaçao, Surinam and French Guiana are some of the countries featured among the 35 countries featured in the 73 films included in 21st African Diaspora International Film Festival (ADIFF-2013) Caribbean Experience showcase. Haiti and Jamaica are at the center with Spotlight on Haiti Jamaicanity; The Resonance of Jamaica, and two programs that present a selection of films that reveal many things about both countries.

SPOTLIGHT ON HAITI

The epic film Toussaint Louverture – which had its New York premiere during ADIFF 2012 to great success – is back as part of a the Spotlight on Haiti program. Looking for Life/Chercher la Vie is a modest film that follows the daily work of two Haitian women and their constant battle for survival in a Haitian economy that is bled dried due to Globalization.

The earthquake of 2010 was devastating for Haiti. While the world stood up to the challenge and aid poured in many ways from many parts, today the effectiveness of the many contributions made is questioned by two Haitian filmmakers – Raoul Peck with Fatal Assistance/Assistance Mortelle and Joseph Hillel with Ayiti Toma, The Land of the Living /Ayiti Toma. Au Pays Des Vivants – who talk about the country, the international aid system, the men and organizations involved and the Haitian people. The level of critical thinking is intense.

Also in the program is Birthright Crisis 2013 about the current challenges faced by Dominicans of Haitian descent born and raised in Dominican Republic who are now being stripped of their Dominican nationality through legislative changes.

JAMAICANITY: THE RESONANCE OF JAMAICA

Jamaicanity, the Resonance of Jamaica is a program built around a certain essence in Jamaica and Jamaicans that gives all things Jamaican a very remarkable human experience, not only in the context of the Americas but also in the world.Catch a Fire reminds us of colonial times on the island of Jamaica and the important role of Paul Boggle in the history of the island. The First Rasta tells the story of Percival Howell and the movement he created – the Rasta Movement – and its ramification in the world.

The Journey of the Lion is a road movie about a Rastaman who in his native Jamaica dreams of going to Africa. This film is sort of a classic for those interested in Jamaica and the Rasta movement. Youths of Shasha talks about these Jamaicans who made it back to Africa and now live in Ethiopia, on land donated to their ancestors by Haile Selassie. Made in Jamaica covers the Jamaican music scenario in a rare, very creative way as many of the musicians showcased come from different styles and sounds all rooted in a Jamaican vibe. The Story of Lovers Rock and The Stuart Hall Project both narrate the impact of Jamaicans in the UK who, from very different walks of life, marked the old continent with a fresh Caribbean input.

Patrice Johnson is a New York filmmaker born in Jamaica. In her films about New Yorkers, there is a Jamaican flavor that characterizes her work. NY’s Dirty Laundry and Hill and Gully, breathe that Jamaicanity that is the resonance of things Jamaican. The same applies for British filmmaker of Jamaican origin, Stephen Lloyd Jackson, whose latest film Sable Fable is a fascinating story about love and identity set in Black London.

CURACAO, GRENADA, CUBA, FRENCH GUIANA

With a compilation that includes recent and less recent films, the selection of Caribbean films in ADIFF 2013 reflects the imagination, creativity and diversity of themes and topics found in this area of the world.

Tula, The Revolt is a fiction film based on real events: the1795 slave revolt on the island of Curaçao, a Dutch colony at the time. Tula, the leader of the revolt, is remembered and celebrated for his significant contribution made to history by Africans in the New World.

Grenada: Colonialism and Conflict focuses its analysis on the island of Grenada in the 70’s and 80’s with reflections and information very much applicable to the socio-political development of other countries in the area.

Cuba is one of the three Spanish speaking countries in the Caribbean; this island is also a country that has gone through radical changes since 1959. The Campaign Against Illiteracy launched in the country after the revolution was one of the moments that defined the direction the country wanted to take regarding the quality of life for its people. Maestra is a film about the women who participated in this Campaign Against Illiteracy and how that moment galvanized a population.

One People/Wan Pipel is one of those films that never get old as it is a love story that still resonates in the context of the Caribbean universe. Set in a Surinam on the verge of its independence, One Peopledescribes how two people of opposite groups go against all odds and love each other in country building a new identity.

The maroons in French Guiana have a very strong culture that has survived the change of time. Aluku Liba, Maroon Again follows Loeti who, after years living away from his culture, decides to come back home and be a Maroon again. Not your everyday story, Aluku Liba, Maroon Again lets you discover one of the old African-based cultures of the New World.

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Eliza Hittman’s IT FELT LIKE LOVE Gets An Early 2014 Release Date | WATCH Clip

Eliza Hittman’s debut feature, IT FELT LIKE LOVE, has set an early 2014 U.S. theatrical release date via Variance Films. IT FELT LIKE LOVE was written and directed by Eliza Hittman, and stars Gina Piersanti, Giovanna Salimeni, and Ronen Rubinstein. Debuting at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival, the film has gone on to a festival run including stops at Rotterdam, BAMcinemaFEST, London BFI, Maryland, Viennale, Melbourne and more. The film was awarded the Special Jury Prize at the Sarasota Film Festival, and Gina Piersanti won the prize for Best Actress at the Nashville Film Festival.

IT FELT LIKE LOVE tells the story of Lila (Gina Piersanti), a fourteen-year-old spending a hot summer in a blue-collar Brooklyn neighborhood far removed from the bustling city. Awkward, lonely, and often playing the third wheel, Lila is determined to emulate the sexual exploits of her more experienced best friend. She fixates on Sammy, a tough older guy, when she hears that “he’ll sleep with anyone.” Deluded in her romantic pursuit, Lila tries desperately to insert herself into Sammy’s gritty world, but in doing so she puts herself into a dangerously vulnerable situation.

http://youtu.be/c0jufr-ed5Y
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5 Films Nominated for Cinema Eye Honors 2014 Heterodox Award

Five films – Andrew Bujalski’s COMPUTER CHESS, Randy Moore’s ESCAPE FROM TOMORROW, James Franco and Travis Matthews’ INTERIOR. LEATHER BAR., Kleber Mendonça Filho’s NEIGHBORING SOUNDS and Carlos Reygadas’ POST TENEBRAS LUX – have been nominated for the Cinema Eye Honors for Nonfiction Filmmaking 2014 Heterodox Award. The Cinema Eye Heterodox Award honors a narrative film that imaginatively incorporates nonfiction strategies, content and/or modes of production. The 2014 Heterodox Award will be presented at the 7th Annual Cinema Eye Honors for Nonfiction Filmmaking on January 8, 2014, at the Museum of the Moving Image in Astoria, Queens, New York.

The Five Nominees for the 2013 Cinema Eye Heterodox Award:

COMPUTER CHESS
Directed by Andrew Bujalski

Masterfully evoking the nerdy world of artificial intelligence engineers at a weekend computer chess convention, Andrew Bujalski’s 1980-set feature feels like a low-fi emissary from a pre-networked age. Shot in black-and-white on vintage video cameras, Computer Chess’s near-anthropological recreation is enormously witty — a loopy commentary on social ritual mediated by technology.

ESCAPE FROM TOMORROW
Directed by Randy Moore

The copyrighted images of the Walt Disney Corporation are deliciously appropriated by Randy Moore for his comic fantasia, Escape from Tomorrow. Shot secretly using consumer DSLRs and a stealth crew at real Disney theme parks, the film is both a hilarious psychosexual comedy and, with its legal provocation, a demonstration of how our childhood memories are the stuff of intellectual property disputes.

INTERIOR. LEATHER BAR.
Directed by James Franco and Travis Matthews

Some 40 minutes of gay S&M footage was purportedly deleted from William Friedkin’s 1980 feature Cruising, and it is this lost material that inspires Travis Matthews and James Franco’s Interior. Leather Bar. What initially feels like a behind-the-scenes documentary about the recreation of these scenes turns into something very different as the film plumbs issues of sexual anxiety, the cinematic history of gay representation and the power of celebrity.

NEIGHBORING SOUNDS
Directed by Kleber Mendonça Filho

The social strata of a Brazilian seaside high-rise are depicted with a hallucinatory tension in Kleber Mendonça Filho’s Neighboring Sounds. When a wealthy apartment complex — the director’s own — is hit by a series of crimes, a private security firm creates its own unease in a film that cooly captures a society amidst economic and cultural transformation.

POST TENEBRAS LUX
Directed by Carlos Reygadas

Boundaries between documentary and fiction, myth and autobiography are elided in Post Tenebras Lux, a seductively mysterious feature from Carlos Reygadas. A rich family moving to a mountainside home in a poor Mexican village face a series of psychic disruptions in this visually ravishing, deeply experimental work.

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Sundance London Sets 2014 Dates

The 2014 edition of the Sundance London film and music festival will take place from April 25 to 27, 2014, at The O2. In addition to the return of the Sundance London Short Film Competition, the festival will feature an expanded filmmaker development program and a Shorts Workshop.

The Sundance London Short Film Competition invites UK-based filmmakers to enter original films between three and five minutes in length, with the winning entry screening at Sundance London and its filmmaker receiving a three-night stay at The Langham, London as well as additional prizes to be announced. Entries should relate to a theme of ‘Making a go of it’: stories about moving forward in life, love or loss and the pursuit of inspiration.’ Submissions can be documentary, animation, live action, comedy, drama or any other preferred format or genre, and will accepted until 17:59 (GMT) on Monday 3 March, 2014.
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Film Review: CUT TO BLACK

CUT TO BLACK, the latest film from Brooklyn-based writer/director/star Dan Eberle, is an Audience Award-winning film from this year’s Brooklyn Film Festival that is one of those films that shouldn’t be unnoticed by larger audiences because of its nearly hypnotic, somewhat dream-like imagery and narrative.

So much of the plot of Cut to Black is familiar, though not in a way that makes the film itself pedestrian or a series of well-worn plot points. Curiously, it both adheres to and contradicts expectations. Bill (Eberle) is an ex-New York cop who has been left penniless and emotionally broken from his actions on a case that is only referred to as “the interborough case,” which got him thrown off the force. One of the few details we’re told about the case is that Bill took the fall for John Lord (James Alba), a powerful political figure. In addition, Bill’s recurring nosebleeds also point to a potentially serious health problem. However, a former colleague from the force, Gunther (Beau Allulli), approaches Bill with a request: Lord will pay Bill a large sum of money to investigate a problem his estranged daughter Jessica (Jilliane Gill) has with a stalker. Despite his hesitations, Bill takes the offer, and upon meeting Jessica he begins to realize that the stalker is the least of her worries. Jessica’s boyfriend Duane (Joe Stipek) is involved in some bad business himself, and her estranged father discovering more about her than she wants him to know adds to her dilemmas.

Cut to Black is shot in black and white, which is likely a nod to its noir elements, but unlike traditional noir films (or even more recent noir-inspired films like Road to Perdition, Sin City, and Drive), the cinematography is shot in high contrast and avoids an overabundance of shadow. Much of the film takes place during the day, and scenes that take place at night are mostly interior, lending the film a relatively flat lightning style. Perhaps that serves as a reflection of the New York City of the present day, when much of the grime that made the streets dangerous (even in a creatively delightful way) has been scrubbed by reform politicians and multibillion dollar corporations. Though Cut to Black’s story is reminiscent of Taxi Driver’s, Travis Bickle’s grit-ridden New York seems to belong to another world. Yet Cut to Black’s New York has just as many seedy problems – one just has to look a little harder to find them (despite this, in the New York of Cut to Black it seems that locking the door to one’s apartment is uncommon!) The soundtrack is uncharacteristically jazz, adding to the juxtaposed atmosphere of Cut to Black’s New York. As Eberle said in his interview with VIMOOZ, “Because of these elemental contradictions, the overall experience of the film is transporting. ‘CUT TO BLACK’ becomes a world of its own.”

Reflecting real-life crimes, not all of the pieces of the crimes in Cut to Black fit together logically. In fact, viewers might find it jarring for a film to follow a private investigator without the convoluted plot twists audiences have come to expect from crime procedural films and television shows. Not everything can be chalked up to delicately planned elements of an overarching antagonist’s master plan. Jessica’s life isn’t simply plagued by a stalker, her life is a sum of a series of self-destructive decisions stemming from her estranged relationship with her powerful father. In that sense, the fact that the mysteries don’t fit together adds to the intrigue.

Like many noir protagonists, Bill is far from a “hero” though it’s clear that he seeks redemption for his past. He speaks in a “hush-harsh” voice, and though only in his thirties his visual appearance and body language are weathered. Jessica is his “damsel in distress,” yet they have such a tenuous personal connection that it seems he only becomes her “white hat” because he had no other cause to champion as his health declines and his life falls apart.

The film’s final third is untraditional in the sense that it raises far more questions than it answers. Bill needs a large sum of money and is able to procure it from the very people whom he brought down in the infamous “interborough case,” including an otherwise beautiful woman covered in sores. Though this borders on a “deux ex machine” resolution, it doesn’t bother me because it’s more intriguing than it is convenient. Like the mystery, Bill’s past is deeper and far darker than we could have possibly expected.

Cut to Black immediately demand a second viewing, not to review the clues (as with other mystery films), but to gain a better understanding of Bill’s action now that one understands more about his past. It won’t answer every question, nor should it, which is the mark of a storyteller whom is confident in his material.

http://youtu.be/GLHZY0_LN6k
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WATCH NSFW Trailer and SEE Posters for Lars Von Trier’s ‘NYMPHOMANIAC’

The trailer and official posters have been released for Lars Von Trier’s “NYMPHOMANIAC,” which stars Charlotte Gainsbourg, Stellan Skarsgard, Willem Dafoe, Jamie Bell, Shia Labeouf, Stacy Martin, Uma Thurman, Christian Slater and Udo Kier. NYMPHOMANIAC is the wild and poetic story of a woman’s journey from birth to the age of 50 as told by the main character, the self-diagnosed nymphomaniac, Joe (Charlotte Gainsbourg). On a cold winter’s evening the old, charming bachelor, Seligman (Stellan Skarsgård), finds Joe beaten up in an alley. He brings her home to his flat where he cares for her wounds while asking her about her life. He listens intently as Joe over the next 8 chapters recounts the lushy branched-out and multifaceted story of her life, rich in associations and interjecting incidents.

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WATCH Trailer for Iranian filmmaker Asghar Farhadi’s THE PAST

THE PAST (LE PASSÉ), Iran’s official Entry for the Best Foreign Language Film – 86th Academy Awards, directed by Oscar winning director Asghar Farhadi of A Separation (A Separation won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 2012, becoming the first Iranian film to win the award) has released its trailer. THE PAST opens in theaters on December 20th, 2013.

Following a four year separation, Ahmad (Ali Mosaffa) returns to Paris from Tehran, upon his estranged French wife Marie (Bérénice Bejo)’s request, in order to finalize their divorce procedure so she can marry her new boyfriend Samir (Tahar Rahim). During his tense brief stay, Ahmad discovers the conflicting nature of Marie’s relationship with her teenage daughter Lucie (Pauline Burlet). Ahmad’s efforts to improve this relationship soon unveil a secret from their past.

http://youtu.be/7kdUF8UZb4M
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HANK AND ASHA and ALICE WALKER: BEAUTY IN TRUTH Win Top Awards at 2013 Napa Valley Film Festival

HANK AND ASHA directed by James E. Duff won the Best Narrative Feature Film Award

HANK AND ASHA directed by James E. Duff won the Best Narrative Feature Film Award, and ALICE WALKER: BEAUTY IN TRUTH directed by Pratibha Parmar won the Best Feature Documentary Film Award at the third annual Napa Valley Film Festival. In the romantic comedy Hank And Asha, winner of the Audience Award at the 2013 Slamdance Film Festival, an Indian woman studying in Prague and a lonely New Yorker begin an unconventional correspondence through video letters – two strangers searching for human connection in a hyper-connected world. When their relationship deepens, they must decide whether or not to meet face to face. Alice Walker: Beauty In Truth is a feature documentary film which tells the compelling story of an extraordinary woman’s journey from her birth in a paper-thin shack in cotton fields of Putnam County, Georgia to her recognition as a key writer of the 20th Century.

JURIED AWARDS

Best Short Documentary: Sky Burial directed by Tad Fettig

Best Feature Documentary: Alice Walker: Beauty In Truth directed by Pratibha Parmar

Best Animated Short: Sleight of Hand directed by Michael Cusack

Honorable Mention:The Right Place directed by Jamie Gallant

Honorable Mention: Horespower directed by Olivia Lai Shetler

Best Narrative Short: King of Norway directed by Sylvia Sether

Honorable Mention: The Romantics directed by Ryan Daniel Dobson

Honorable Mention: The Listing Agent directed by Matthew Helfgott & Jared Hillman

Best Screenplay: The Girl on the Train, Screenwriter & Director Larry Brand

Best Ensemble Cast: The Bounceback, starring Zach Cregger, Sara Paxton, Ashley Bell, Michael Stahl-David

Best Narrative Feature: Hank and Asha directed by James E. Duff

Special Jury Prize for Best Cinematography:My Brother Jack directed by Stephen Dest

Special Jury Prize for Most Thought Provoking Film:The Last White Knight directed by Paul Saltzman

AUDIENCE AWARDS

Favorite Narrative Feature: The Little Tin Man directed by Matthew Perkins

Favorite Actor: Andrew Pastides, Hank & Asha

Favorite Actress: Mahira Kakkar, Hank & Asha

Favorite Documentary Feature: Finding Hillywood directed by Christopher Towey and Leah Warshawski

Favorite Documentary Short: Make Haste Slowly: The Kikkoman Story directed by Lucy Walker

Favorite Narrative Short: The Listing Agent directed by Mathew Helfgott and Jared Hillman

Favorite Animated Short: Horsepower directed by Olivia Lai Shetler

Favorite Lounge Feature: Starring Adam West directed by James Tooley

Favorite Lounge Short: The Romantics directed by Ryan Daniel Dobson
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PHILOMENA Wins Top Award at 2013 Virginia Film Festival

PHILOMENA

The Virginia Film Festival announced the winners of its Audience and Programmer’s Awards for the 2013 festival. Earning top honors in the Audience Award category of Best Narrative Feature was PHILOMENA, the Stephen Frears directed drama starring Dame Judi Dench as a woman who was forced to give up her son for adoption by her Irish Catholic community decades earlier and joins forces with a BBC reporter, played by Steve Coogan, on a mission to find him.

The full list of 2013 VFF Audience Award winners includes:

Narrative Feature: PHILOMENA (Stephen Frears)

Narrative Short: AWAKENED EYES (Lainey Wood), also Runner Up in the VFF’s 2013 ACTION! High School Filmmaker Competition

Documentary Feature: CLAW (Brian Wimer and Billy Hunt)

Documentary Short: THE CREATIVE PROPOSITION (Gordon Quinn)

This year, Kielbasa and VFF Programmer Wesley Harris once again saluted their own “Best of Fest” picks with Programmer’s Award winners, including:

Narrative Feature: BLUE RUIN (Jeremy Saulnier)

Documentary Feature: A WILL FOR THE WOODS (Amy Browne, Tony Hale, Jeremy Kaplan, Brian Wilson)

Narrative Short: MIRACLE BOY (Jason Brown)

Documentary Short: RING PEOPLE (Alfredo Covelli)

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Julia Roberts, Sandra Bullock, Bruce Dern, Matthew McConaughey and Steve McQueen to be Honored at 2014 Palm Springs International Film Festival

The 25th annual Palm Springs International Film Festival (PSIFF) will honor Julia Roberts, Sandra Bullock, Bruce Dern, Matthew McConaughey and Steve McQueen at its annual Awards Gala to be held Saturday, January 4, 2014, at the Palm Springs Convention Center. The Festival runs January 3 to 13, 2014.

Academy Award winning actress Julia Roberts will be presented with the Spotlight Award for AUGUST: OSAGE COUNTY. The Weinstein Company presents August: Osage County which tells the dark, hilarious and deeply touching story of the strong-willed women of the Weston family, whose lives have diverged until a family crisis brings them back to the Midwest house they grew up in, and to the dysfunctional woman who raised them. Tracy Letts’ Pulitzer Prize-winning play of the same name made its Broadway debut in December 2007 after premiering at Chicago’s legendary Steppenwolf Theatre. It continued with a successful international run and won five 2008 Tony Awards including Best Play. August: Osage County is directed by John Wells and features an all-star cast including Meryl Streep, Julia Roberts, Ewan McGregor, Chris Cooper, Abigail Breslin, Benedict Cumberbatch, Juliette Lewis, Margo Martindale, Dermot Mulroney, Julianne Nicholson, Sam Shepard and Misty Upham.

Steve McQueen with receive the Director of the Year Award for 12 YEARS A SLAVE. 12 Years a Slave is based on an incredible true story of one man’s fight for survival and freedom. In the pre-Civil War United States, Solomon Northup (Chiwetel Ejiofor), a free black man from upstate New York, is abducted and sold into slavery. Facing cruelty (personified by a malevolent slave owner, portrayed by Michael Fassbender) as well as unexpected kindnesses, Solomon struggles not only to stay alive, but to retain his dignity. In the twelfth year of his unforgettable odyssey, Solomon’s chance meeting with a Canadian abolitionist (Brad Pitt) forever alters his life. The Fox Searchlight Pictures film is directed and produced by Steve McQueen and stars Chiwetel Ejiofor, Michael Fassbender, Benedict Cumberbatch, Paul Dano, Garret Dillahunt, Paul Giamatti, Scoot McNairy, Lupita Nyong’o, Adepero Oduye, Sarah Paulson, Brad Pitt, Michael Kenneth Williams, Alfre Woodard, Chris Chalk, Taran Killam and Bill Camp.

Bruce Dern currently seen in NEBRASKA, will be presented with the Career Achievement Award. Paramount Vantage presents Nebraska, directed by Alexander Payne and starring Bruce Dern (who won Best Actor at the Cannes Film Festival earlier this year), Will Forte, June Squibb, Stacy Keach and Bob Odenkirk. In the film, a father and son steer the American road comedy into a vanishing Midwest on the trail of a dubious fortune – and in search of an understanding of each other that once seemed impossible. After receiving a sweepstakes letter in the mail, a cantankerous father (Dern) thinks he’s struck it rich, and wrangles his son (Forte) into taking a road trip to claim the fortune. Shot in black and white across four states, Nebraska tells the stories of family life in the heartland of America. Dern won Best Actor at the Cannes Film Festival for his role.

Academy Award®-winning actress Sandra Bullock now starring in GRAVITY, in theaters, will be presented with the Desert Palm Achievement Award, Actress. Gravity stars Sandra Bullock and George Clooney in a Warner Bros. Pictures film directed by Alfonso Cuarón. Dr. Ryan Stone (Bullock) is a brilliant medical engineer on her first shuttle mission, with veteran astronaut Matt Kowalski (Clooney) in command. But on a seemingly routine mission, disaster strikes. The shuttle is destroyed by space debris, leaving Stone and Kowalski completely alone—tethered to nothing but each other and spiraling out into the blackness. The deafening silence tells them they have lost any link to Earth…and any chance for rescue. As fear turns to panic, every gulp of air eats away at what little oxygen is left. The only way home may be to go further out into the terrifying expanse of space.

Palm Springs International Film Festival will present Matthew McConaughey now seen in the new movie DALLAS BUYERS CLUB, with the Desert Palm Achievement Award, Actor. Inspired by true events, Dallas Buyers Club is directed by Jean-Marc Vallée from an original screenplay by Craig Borten & Melisa Wallack, and also stars Jennifer Garner and Jared Leto.
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